Red Bull retirements ‘difficult to accept’ – Verstappen

It’s become an all too familiar sight for Red Bull and their fans this season – an RB14 parked up at the side of the track before the race has run its course. In Hungary, Max Verstappen’s machine was the latest to give up the ghost, the Dutchman pulling over on lap five with an engine failure to record the team’s eighth retirement of the season. Understandably Verstappen found it tough to keep a lid on his feelings after the race, with power unit provider Renault copping the most flak...

“To retire so quickly is very disappointing,” he said. “The whole season we’ve tried to stay positive, tried to be calm about the straight-line loses that we’ve had. But then to also be so unreliable is really bad.

“Honestly at the moment it is difficult to accept,” he added to Sky Sports F1, “and I was very angry on the radio, there was a lot of beeping out there…”

Verstappen added that seeing team mate Daniel Ricciardo climb to fourth from 12th on the grid only added to his frustrations of what could have been.

“I mean I was like 25 seconds ahead [of Ricciardo] because of the starting position I was in, and I felt okay with the car.

“It’s always difficult to say afterwards, at the end of the day what could have been easily fifth if nothing happened out front, so again valuable points just thrown away. So let's see what we have to do in Spa. If we have to take penalties, I don't know yet but at the end of the day again at the moment I don't really care.”

With nearly a month to wait until he gets to drive his car in anger once more, Verstappen says he’s not currently relishing F1’s annual summer break.

“I hate it when people say ‘bad luck now enjoy your holiday’. For sure the first week I'm not really enjoying it because of the end of your last race, but that's how it is. I don't feel I am in holiday mode.”

Verstappen’s retirement meant he was unable to add to his 105 points haul this season, leaving him sixth in the drivers’ standings.